Special to WorldTribune.com

MOSCOW — Russia conducted trials of Israel’s Searcher-2 unmanned aerial vehicle for security missions near the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

In late January the UAV underwent tests for regional authorities in the Urals.

“It will be interesting to see how many of Russia’s other Israeli UAVs end up in the Sochi region for the next little while,” the Washington-based Defense Industry Daily said.

Russia has also begun co-production of the Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle.

Industry sources said Russia’s defense industry was co-producing and assembling the Searcher-2 UAV. They said Searcher, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and also called “Outpost,” was part of a $400 million defense industry agreement signed in 2010 that marked the first such cooperation between Moscow and Jerusalem.

“The Outpost UAV has been produced by Uzga at its Nizhny Tagil factory, under license from Israeli IAI,” the Israeli defense industry website iHLS said.

So far, Uzga has produced and delivered six Searcher-2 UAVs to the
Russian Air Force. The aircraft were said to comprise a tactical
surveillance platoon at the air force’s base in Kamchatka along Russia’s
northeast coast near Japan.

Russia was believed to have received at least 50 UAVs from IAI in a $400
million project. They included Searcher-2 as well as the miniature
BirdEye-400 and I-View Mk-150. About 50 Russian Air Force personnel also
underwent training in Israel.

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